Hamilton & Russell See Gains, Frustration at Imola

Hamilton and Russell noted progress at Imola but expressed frustration with their results, despite securing the fastest lap point.

Mercedes F1 once again maximized their performance with the current W15, even managing to finish ahead of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton, in 6th place, is pleased to see the gaps closing, though there is still some way to go before competing with Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari.

“My race was overall good. I had a moment in the gravel which cost me about five seconds, but my race pace was generally strong, so I’m happy with how it went. I got a good start, which was crucial to get past Tsunoda. From there, I was able to extend my first stint, which helped make the one-stop strategy work.”

“The good thing was that I had George ahead of me at the start; I could see the people I was chasing, so I wasn’t alone. I was pushing to close the gap ahead. We don’t have the pace of the people in front of us for now, but we’re catching up little by little. I’m talking about race pace. In terms of one-lap pace, it’s about half a second, but in race pace, I think we’re three-tenths off.”

“We made a small step forward this weekend and have improved. Unfortunately, it’s slightly masked by the step forward made by others like McLaren and Ferrari. We will continue to strive to bring more updates that could improve performance. Until then, we’ll make sure to score as many points as possible.”

George Russell was a bit frustrated at the end of the race as he was running ahead of his teammate. Unfortunately, he had to make a second stop.

“We had some concerns about the hard tires making it to the end, so we made a second pit stop. Of course, this meant I lost a place to Lewis, but we managed to score an extra point as a team.”

However, he insisted on the radio about regaining his position. Why?

“As a driver, you want to finish as high as possible. And all weekend, I was ahead of my teammate. I was comfortably ahead throughout the race, and then it was sort of losing a position for the sake of it. So, we have the extra point for the fastest lap. But I’m not going to dwell on it tonight; it wasn’t for a podium or a win.”

“In my view, we stopped a bit too early, which slightly compromised my race on this side of the garage. But as a team, we walked away with the extra point for the fastest lap, so maybe it’s better optimized this way.”

“To conclude, it was a fairly lonely race for us. We slightly closed the gap to Red Bull and extended our advantage over the midfield. However, McLaren and Ferrari have also made similar progress, so we aim to bring more performance and bigger gains as soon as possible. We will never be satisfied with 6th and 7th places, but that’s where we are currently.”

“Everyone is super motivated, and it’s very inspiring to see. Everyone at Brackley and Brixworth is working very hard to bring improvements, and it’s great to see. We must keep pushing. This weekend, we maximized the package we had, and we will continue to aim for this goal in the future.”